Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 9:54 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 9:54 a.m.

The role of executive chef is one that Kevin Templet knows a lot about.

He served as executive chef at Flanagan's Creative Food and Drink, before being asked to serve in a similar role at its sister restaurant, Fremin's, in 2006.

Instead of choosing to either stay or leave, he decided on a third option: maintain executive chef status at both.

“I loved working at Flanagan's, and I didn't want to leave,” Templet said. “I thought cooking at Fremin's would be a great opportunity and a different challenge. Plus, they're owned by the same company.”

While Templet spends most of his nights and weekends at Fremin's, 402 W. Third St., it takes lots of planning and organization to run both kitchens. It helps that the eateries have different customer bases.

“The clientele that comes to Fremin's is a little bit more adventurous, willing to try something different,” he said, “so I can go a little bit further with the menu.”

Inside the small open kitchen, Templet and seven other chefs prepare Fremin's perfect mixture of Cajun and Italian cuisines. The restaurant's signature dish, Seafood Napoleon, is a three-layered fried eggplant and seafood mornay, topped half with house tomato sauce and half with shrimp, crabmeat and oysters. The signature appetizers are chargrilled oysters, six oysters on the half shell, basted in Italian herbal butter and broiled with Parmesan cheese.

However, the most popular item on the menu is the steaks.

“As much as we're surrounded by seafood, we serve a ton of steaks,” Templet said. “We tend to sell a lot of filet mignon and ribeye steaks just because when people go out they want a great piece of meat.”

Last month, Templet and sous chef, Evan Christensen, placed second in the Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off for their creation, Potato Chip Black Drum. The dish is a black drum filet crusted with Zapp's Cajun Crawtators, topped with crabmeat and corn relish and served with crawfish and bacon and asparagus risotto.

“It feels good to know we have something really first rate, and it stacked up against some of the best chefs around New Orleans,” Templet said. “I told Evan, as long as we show up, execute and put it out there, we had a good chance.”

“The exposure we have gotten from this, I think it's bringing in a lot of business,” said Cassie Comeaux, Fremin's general manager. “It's a wonderful dish.”

Born and raised in Labadieville, Templet, 35, got involved with cooking at a young age. He and his mother, a 4-H leader, would do 4-H cooking competitions on the weekends. As a teen, he worked in his uncle's grocery store and meat market.

The 1994 E.D. White Catholic High School graduate majored in computer science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Nicholls State University before leaving college. He worked at several restaurants in Thibodaux before landing at Flanagan's.

“One of my friends wanted me to go to Flanagan's,” he said. “At first I was like, ‘No, I'm happy where I am.' But even back then, Flanagan's seemed like a nicer environment to be in. They had some chefs there that tended to have that same attitude for food I had.”

While he employs many students from the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, Templet is a self-taught chef. He credits his passion for food and keen observation of ever-changing industry trends for continuous success.

“I've been cooking in the restaurant business for 17 years,” he said. “I'm always learning what other people are doing and being inquisitive and asking questions. The best thing you can do is pay attention to what's going on around you.”

Templet is preparing a menu change very soon. Although many favorites are staying put, new dishes will be added that are more current, and specials that were popular in the past are returning.

Something else new Fremin's began this year is the Chef's Table. Inside the private six-person downstairs dining room, Templet and staff will customize an entire meal completely off the menu.

“Let's say you went on your honeymoon to Cancun, and you have this meal that you just have to try and re-create. We'll do that for you to the best of our ability,” Comeaux said. “The chef comes in, talks about food, serves the food to you. It's just really personalized service. We've done about four or five of them so far, and they have been great successes.”

One might assume running two of Thibodaux's best-known restaurants would wear out a chef. But it has only deepened Templet's desire to get more creative with his cooking.

“It's nice when you can feed somebody, and they enjoy what you did, especially if it's something they hadn't tried before,” he said. “To do a good job on a busy night, it's good to feel like you conquered and made everybody happy.”

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